Brides of the Kindred(34)

Mmm, nice! Liv took another sip and then wondered why everything had begun to look blurry around the edges. A thought began to make its way into her numb brain. Could it be that the liquid she’d been swigging like milk right out of the carton was alcoholic in nature? It didn’t smell like any alcohol she’d ever encountered but it definitely wasn’t really milk. Also, plain old two percent never sent anyone on a bender and she was feeling decidedly warm and woozy. What would Baird say if he came home and she was drunk? Would he be angry? Try to take advantage of her?

Instead of frightening her, the thought made her feel warm and tingly other places besides her fingers and toes—like the tips of her breasts and the wet cleft of her sex. Now Liv knew she was in trouble. If thoughts of the big Kindred warrior getting her horizontal were making her hot rather than worried her judgment was definitely impaired. Glad that she had enough presence of mind left to stop before it was too late, she recapped the bottle and reached in to hang it back on the hook in the rear of the fridge.

She tried several times but somehow the handle of the rectangular container kept missing its intended target. Damn! Maybe if I just…Standing on her tiptoes, eyes narrowed and the tip of her tongue sticking out of her mouth with fierce concentration, Liv reached as far back as she could, intent on putting the container back in its rightful place.

And then something brushed against the back of her leg.

Liv stifled a shriek and turned, the rectangular container still clutched in one hand. What she saw made her want to scream again but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a breathless gasp.

Standing on its hind legs in front of her was what looked like a bright blue teddy bear. A living teddy bear. Liv could tell because it blinked its adorable big brown eyes at her and made an inquiring noise that sounded like a cross between a grunt and a squeak.

After a moment spent staring at the thing, Liv realized that it wasn’t actually a child’s toy brought to life but an actual animal that just happened to look like a teddy bear. It was about the size of a Pomeranian but it was standing on its stumpy hind legs, staring at her with those big round eyes as though it expected something.

“Hey, buddy, who are you?” Liv asked it softly. It was as cute as could be—round and cuddly but there was something weird going on with its blue fur which seemed almost to float around it instead of lying flat down on its skin.

The thing grunt/squeaked again and shuffled toward her on its fat little feet.

“Aren’t you cute?” Liv cooed, leaning down toward it. She was just reaching out a hand to scratch it behind its adorable fuzzy ears when the bright blue teddy bear opened its mouth and revealed three rows of razor sharp fangs.



“She’s impossible! Completely fuckin’ impossible,” Baird growled, slumping into the chair beside Sylvan. “She’s hot then she’s cold. She’s madder than hell at me for bringing her up here in the first place and she’s determined not to let me in, no matter what.”

“Still no luck even when you got back to the suite, hmm?” Sylvan didn’t sound all that surprised but at least he managed to look sympathetic. Nodding at the bartender behind the plasti-wood bar they were sitting at he ordered a drink for both himself and his half-brother. It was a small bar on the very outer edge of the huge Kindred ship but it was always fairly busy because of its proximity to the docking bay.

Baird threw back his drink in one swallow and grimaced. On the floor at their feet was the huge cardboard box Sylvan had brought up for Olivia as well as several bags filled with the kind of food humans favored. He knew he needed to get back to his bride and start fixing her late-day meal—it was traditional for a Kindred male to cook and care for his female, especially during the claiming period. But he kept remembering the wounded look in her eyes when he’d left her sitting on the bed and he just didn’t feel he could face her yet. A drink with his half-brother was exactly what he needed before he had to go back to the suite. Sometimes Sylvan had surprising insights into problems that Baird, with his more aggressive, direct personality, hadn’t thought of.

“Oh, I had some luck all right,” he said after signaling the bartender for another. “At first she didn’t want to go into the suite but then I kissed her—”

“She let you kiss her?” Sylvan interrupted, raising one dark blond eyebrow over the rim of his mug.

Baird shrugged. “I, uh, kind of forced the issue. I didn’t mean to but her scent was driving me crazy and that sheer little outfit she had on…” He shook his head. “Anyway, she kissed me back and then one thing led to another and we ended up on the bed.”